Each grower will sooner or later faces the problem of providing housing for broilers. Even if the first time you were limited to only one paddock in the future without a normal household room lighting is not enough. So to build a chicken coop for broilers with their hands must.
Broiler chickens are breeds of poultry, the intensive feeding rapidly gaining weight. The coop for them is built taking into account the specifics of growing, feeding and planting density.
Design features of a chicken coop
Broilers bred not to produce eggs, because the bird is slaughtered upon reaching two to three months of age. In the paddock for them, the nests do not exist. There are two main ways of chickens in the henhouse: outdoor; cell.
The first is the enclosure for walking and is used more often in small farms, where birds, to three dozen. Cell content allows for smaller dimensions of the coop, but there must be good ventilation system.
The main elements of the design:
- indoor;
- enclosure;
- the vestibule.
Requirements for the construction of
Construction, especially wood, should be constructed with observance of norms of fire safety. For heating is not recommended to use a combined or wood stove, inside there should be no protruding nails or wire, on which the Chicks can get hurt.
The Foundation and floors should not miss the rats and mice that steal food and spread the infection. In the chicken coop for broilers where the chickens are grown all year round, should be safe.
In addition, the following requirements are met:
- The presence of insulation and the Foundation.
- The presence of lighting and ventilation systems.
- Location on the hill.
Year-round room should be warm, it should not be cracks, which may occur due to drafts. The window area for ventilation is not less than 1/12 of the floor area (in through the ventilation system).
The drawing of the coop for chickens is made taking into account the number of broilers. On 1 m2 should have no more than four chickens in outdoor cultivation and not more than 12-18 at a cellular way.
Choosing the location of a chicken coop for broilers, consider the following:
- the building should not be located in the lowland;
- should be located away from the roadway (other noisy areas);
- South-facing Windows should not set off large trees or buildings.
Swales collect rainwater and melt water, and at the location of the coop in a place like this floor it will always be damp and moldy. It is best to place the chicken coop for broilers , on a small smooth hills, and the cage to expand to the South-East. Chickens many breeds do not respond well to loud noises, nervous, not gain weight.
Insulation
Winterizing the chicken coop for broilers is carried out with the purpose of reduction of expenditure on Parking; ensure rapid weight gain chickens; prevention of diseases that can cause cold.
To insulate the design encouraged construction. This will save time and material. Insulated walls, floor and ceiling. The principle of insulation – creating a thicker wall or floor a layer of insulating materialthat helps maintain warmth.
Wooden chicken coop insulating material can serve as:
- a polymeric filler;
- mineral wool;
- Styrofoam/foam blocks.
In the event of conversion of the finished room, it is outside can be covered with briquettes of pressed wool or straw.
Floors can be insulated with deep litter, where decomposition of organic matter generates heat. Made a bed of straw or hay mixed with peat or sawdust.
The height of the litter – 30-40 cm and replace it in a year or two. The farmer should not forget that the use of deep litter is associated with the accumulation of harmful ammonia vapors due to the excreta of birds, so the coop needs to have a mechanical ventilation system.
Ventilation, lighting
Can be used one of three types of ventilation systems: mechanical; window; from a plastic pipe.
In the case of installation with your own hands ventilation Windows in the coop for broilers need to make holes on opposite sides, at a certain time of the opening and at the same time providing ventilation.
In the case of a plastic ventilation pipe in the ceiling vents installed two vertical pipes, one of which must reach almost to the floor, the other – to lean out of the ceiling at 30-50 cm.
Such ventilation is operating due to the ability of the heated air to rise. With ammoniac vapors and carbon dioxide it will go from a short top tube and long tube will go in fresh air.
Mechanical ventilation involves the use of electric fansmounted in wall openings or ceiling. In establishing this system of ventilation with their hands, know that you have to spend electricity, which can quickly get rid of stale air.
Perhaps the combination of mechanical ventilation with others by embedding fans in window openings and vertical pipe. Artificial light encourages the chicken to stay awake longer and therefore eat more, faster gaining mass. Lighting will provide the led bulb or bulbs.
Fluorescent lamps energy saving lamps of the same principle of action is not recommended, since they have the blink rate of 60 times/sec., that has a negative impact on the health of broilers – they lose appetite, and become aggressive, making them a quick feeding becomes impossible.
If the birds will peck at these fixtures and break them, henhouse will spread the mercury over which the broiler can trap disease in the next few months.
The main part of electric energy bulbs is converted into heat and electricity requires a lot. Led bulbs illuminate the coop well, electricity, consume a bit, allowing you to feed them from the solar panelsinstalled on the roof of the house. For every 5 m2 of space (at a height of 2 meters) have one 100-watt filament lamp or one led output of 11 watts.
DIY chicken coop
To make a chicken coop for broilers with their hands for up to 20 hens will need the following materials and tools:
- Bricks and cement.
- Pebbles, gravel.
- Hardwood timber 100×100 mm.
- Timber 50x 100 for the lag.
- Planed boards with a thickness of 15-20 mm.
- Mineral wool.
- Metal brackets for mounting.
- Metal profile.
- The screws and nails.
- Level of the building.
- Screwdriver.
- Drill.
- A saw and a hammer.
- The roofing material.
- Roulette.
- Construction resin.
- Insulation of foil.
Mineral wool can be replaced by another insulation. If the building goes with the sandwich panels, the insulation is not necessary. Metal straps provides additional bond support beams. These elements should be in the thickness not less 3 mm and a width of 50-100 mm.
Step by step instructions
Before the production with his own hands prepared the drawing and selected a place for the coop.
The first thing is columnar or pile Foundation:
- the plot is laid out under the coop;
- in the corners and along the perimeter of the 1.5–2m to make a mark;
- at the marked locations dig holes with a depth of 0.5 m and width 0.4–0.6 m;
- the pits are laid square columns of brick or cinder block, is used to bond cement mortar;
- after drying of the cement the space between the pillars and the pit is filled with gravel or rubble.
After drying, the Foundation can start directly with the construction:
- Square sheets of roofing material to be laid on the pillars of the Foundation.
- Supply of horizontal support beams made of timber 100×100 and bond them with each other.
- Mount to complement the brackets on the screws.
- At the corners of the future coop to put 4 vertical support beams made of timber 100×100.
- At the time, using boards to attach vertical beams above for fixing of their position.
- A vertical beam attached to the horizontal bars at 45° to each of the four supporting pillars are kept 2 bars. The opposite ends should be based on the horizontal beams.
- To strengthen the upper horizontal beam where you will build the roof.
- 50×100 timber to make rafters for Stingray by sawing them at an angle of 30°, to connect the upper horizontal beams.
- On the bottom of the beam to stack every 0.5 m lumber 50x 100 edge horizontally.
- Between sexual joists to fill the space with insulation.
- Floor boards laid on the joists and attach them using screws or nails.
- Walls oblitsevat Board.
- With the inside of the wall to attach the timber using 0.5 m, as in the case of floor joists.
- Openings in the walls to put the insulation and secure it with tie wire.
- Detailed rolls of foil-reflector to attach their hands to the walls for insulation, start at the top.
- To the reflector from the inside to nail the siding boards.
- On the roof under the rays to lay the boards.
- To pave the roof with sheets of roofing material.
- On the rafters to put slate or tile, leaving a place for vertical ventilation.
- Sealing the cracks.
- After drying of the sealant wood handle from the inside using moisture-proof solution, and after it dries cover with his hands the floor and walls with a solution of lime.
- To give lime to dry and then arrange the chicken coop and refill it with litter.
Instead of vertical reinforcement for walls it is possible to use metal profile.
Typical mistakes
When building the chicken coop with your own hands you can make such mistakes that you will have to completely redo the design.
- If you build a chicken coop on a small hill, the walls will be almost flush with the ramp. In this case, often eroding the Foundation, and even a chicken coop can be done at the expense of the wider extensions.
- The lack of protection from mice and rats is also a common mistake. If you do build on the land, leaving the clearance distance between the bottom layer of insulation and soil, the coop is exposed to the probability of flooding and provides access to rodents.
- It is recommended that the lower part of the insulation under the floor between the pillars of the Foundation are to be filled with rubble and broken glass that will not allow rodents to make a tunnel.
- For the cladding do not recommend the use of plasterboard, chipboard, isopleth, PVC plastic.
When building the chicken coop myself it is necessary to carefully select the location and make a plan. Should be based on the financial capabilities and available materials.
